229 The 5 Key Success Factors Chiropractors Must Have

Welcome to the KC CHIROpulse Podcast.  

This week’s topic:  The 5 Key Success Factors Chiropractors Must Have

The KC CHIROpulse Podcast is designed for Chiropractic professionals ready to elevate their practice to new heights.  This week, the show is hosted by Kats Consultants’ coaches Dr Michael Perusich and Dr Alex Kallio, seasoned experts in Chiropractic business management.  This podcast provides invaluable insights and actionable strategies to help you create a flourishing and sustainable Chiropractic business.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why creating a clear vision for practice success is essential

• How a focus on your KPI’s is a game changer for your practice

• Why creating a patient-centric culture is paramount to success

• …and so much more…

In each episode of KC CHIROpulse, we delve into crucial aspects of building a successful Chiropractic practice, covering topics such as establishing a strong foundation, adopting a patient-centric approach, mastering marketing techniques, achieving financial fitness, fostering effective team building and leadership, integrating technology and innovation, and navigating common challenges in the field.

Whether you're a seasoned chiropractor or just starting your practice, the KC CHIROpulse Podcast offers a wealth of knowledge and personalized practical advice to help you navigate the intricate world of Chiropractic business. Join us on this journey as we explore proven strategies, share success stories, and connect with industry experts to empower you in your pursuit of building a thriving Chiropractic practice.

Don't miss out on the latest insights and expert guidance. Subscribe now and unlock the secrets to taking your Chiropractic practice to the next level. Your success is our priority at Kats Chiropractic Business Advisors.

DISCLAIMER:  The information presented in this broadcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended to offer legal, investment, accounting, or medical advice, and represents the opinions of the speakers.  Seek the consultation of a professional for advice in those areas. And remember…your results using this information may be different than described.

229 The 5 Keys to Success

[00:00:00]

Dr. Michael Perusich: Doctors, do you know why Chipractors succeed? Hi, everybody. Welcome to the KC Chiro Pulse Podcast, brought to you by Kats Consultants and Chiro Health USA. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Perusich and I'm joined by my co-host Dr. Alex Kallio Today. Alex, we're talking about. The top five reasons why chiropractors succeed.

And this isn't theory, this isn't fluff. This is the real stuff we see every single day of why doctors succeed. And we could, we could do an antithesis to this and talk about why they don't succeed, but let's, let's keep it positive, right? Absolutely. You know, the first thing, and I think this is important and, and I'm gonna kind of.

Have you jump in here on this one, especially because you just are starting another new practice. You have to have vision. 'cause vision. I think vision just drives everything.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah. Well vision to not only obviously see where you want to be, but the route to get there. Right. Yeah. You've gotta, you've gotta have a bit of a plan and you've gotta be able to have some [00:01:00] detail to it and be excited about it.

Dr. Michael Perusich: And you, you've gotta have a path. So we, you know, we talk about when you start a business, you gotta have a business plan and all that 'cause it's your roadmap and blah, blah, blah. But man, if you don't have the vision for where you want to go, if you don't have the vision of what chiropractic can do for people in your community, you just aren't gonna succeed.

And. We see a lot of times, especially, and I'm not picking on you guys out there, but some of the new doctors coming outta school, we see that they just really don't have a vision for chiropractic. They, they don't have not only their own personal purpose, but they just don't have a vision of what chiropractic is.

That really aligns with what we do. And so they lose momentum, they lose resilience in the marketplace, and I think you've gotta have that clear vision. To be able to even remotely find success.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah. Well, and it plays off both sides, right? I mean, the vision of what you want the business to be and ultimately look like, but you know, the, the vision [00:02:00] and excitement to talk about it, you know?

Yeah. You've gotta bring others on board with your vision and get other people excited about what you're doing too, to not only keep you accountable. You know, to kind of put the work in and, and get there, but also just again, get other people excited about what you're doing. And the, the more you can do that, not only within your office and with your patients, but with your friends, with your family, you know, they're gonna help to you to reach that vision as well.

Dr. Michael Perusich: You know, you bring up a great point. Excitement creates success. Yeah. And I just love that 'cause it's so true. We're gonna take a quick break. We gotta hear a quick word from our sponsors and we will be right back.

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Dr. Michael Perusich: Alright, everybody, welcome back to the KC Chiro Pulse Podcast. We are talking about the five reasons why chiropractors succeed, and there's probably a whole lot more things than just the five, but these are kind of the five things that we see a lot as kind of the common denominators and, and the next one I want to talk about is just having a relentless [00:04:00] drive for your KPIs, for your statistics.

And obviously this is. Near and dear to my heart. 'cause I love the numbers. And why is that? Well, it's because the numbers don't, just don't lie. And the doctors that succeed really pay attention deeply to those KPIs.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah, I mean, again, it kind of comes back to what we were talking about at first, right?

You gotta know where you're ultimately going, but where you are on the road getting there, right? And if you're not tracking that detail, you're just flying blind. You don't have any clue what you need to do next to, you know, either. Attract more new patients or, again, how is your attention?

How are you doing in the office? How are you performing? If you aren't tracking statistics deep, you have no idea how you're performing, uh, or what, again, action steps you need to be taking or focusing on. And usually people end up then focusing on the wrong things.

Dr. Michael Perusich: Well, that's exactly right, and far too often I see doctors using their KPIs as benchmarks.

Oh, look, July was better this year than it was last year. That's a [00:05:00] benchmark that really doesn't show you how successful you are. It might show you a little bit of an indicator as to a. Whether or not you're, you're growing year over year or month over month, but you gotta dig into the trends and you've really gotta now analyze the numbers deeply to understand what they're telling you.

And you, you know, I think in our profession we have a tendency to just focus on the very basics, patient visits, collections, new patients you know, and it, it's funny. When you go to conventions and things, you hear doctors talk about Yeah. The seminar numbers, you

Dr. Alex Kallio: know. Yeah. The

Dr. Michael Perusich: seminar numbers. Oh, I see 450 new, new patients a month.

Okay, great. Yeah. How broke are you? Yeah. 'cause those basic numbers don't really tell you much about your practice. If your collections are $50,000 a month, that's great. Unless your expenses are 60,000, then you're, then you're going in the hole. So you've really gotta dig into those numbers really, really deeply.

And I think a big number that doctors [00:06:00] just, I think, just throw at the wall to see if it sticks, are your fees. And we don't sometimes talk about our fees as far as being part of our KPIs, but if you don't set your fees correctly. You'll be outta business pretty quick. And and how many times do we see doctors who have profit per patient visit that is negative.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah. Well, and trying to throw out the, again, we're gonna arbitrarily come up with a, we've talked ad nauseum, you know, in different podcasts here on the, it's the. 1799, you know, you get the kitchen sink and, and you know, a, a free car. I mean, you're throwing in so many different things, for this low fee, but what does it cost you to see that person Yeah.

That day? And are they returning for other services? And what is their longevity? Just numbers that they aren't digging into. And most likely when we continue to do a lot of that stuff, they're probably losing money.

Dr. Michael Perusich: [00:07:00] Exactly. Exactly. And and far too often when they do those low cost first day things and like you said, throw in the kitchen sink and the new car it takes you so many visits to get profitable, you know, and that's another side of your numbers is.

How long before that patient is actually profitable in your practice, and in a lot of cases it takes more than three or four visits, and yet that's the primary dropout point is about the third or fourth visit where a lot of those low cost patients drop outta care.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah. Well, and part of that, is a mindset, right?

I mean, that that patient that's looking for that low cost entry point, then to turn around and be charged, for, they're probably complaining about kind of every step along the way, or they're not utilizing your services as they should be. Because of cost. So let's attract better patients that are wanting to pay and find those patients.

How do we go about that? How do we track our numbers and really making sure that we're attracting the kind of patients into our [00:08:00] offices that we wanna be seeing, and that, and that are a lot more fun to see. Bingo.

Dr. Michael Perusich: Yeah. Bingo. Because if, if you're attracting the wrong kind of patients the patients that don't fit your mindset, that don't believe in your vision, that don't help you build the culture of your practice, your practice will spin outta control.

Yeah.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah. Wasted staff and doc time on a ton of admin. Just, I'm wasting stuff that we don't need to be messing with.

Dr. Michael Perusich: Yeah, exactly. And speaking of that, when it comes to patients, we also have to create a very patient-centric experience. We call it the wow. You gotta have the wow factor.

Why do people go to places like Starbucks and spend $10 on a cup of coffee? They go because of the experience, and then. And we all know this, you go to Starbucks and, you can't wait to see how they spell your name today and all those kind of crazy things. And then you walk into the office and what does everybody say?

Oh my gosh, you went to Starbucks? Did you get me anything? What'd you get? And [00:09:00] there's this excitement around it because Starbucks has been great at creating that wow experience.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah. Sorry, we're we're, yeah, you're good. Disney family. You know, we, we Disney pretty frequently. Is it because they're cheap?

No, you know, it, it's probably the most expensive place you could go,? Yeah. But we go frequently and it's because of the experience, it's because of , what they are providing in top to bottom from aesthetics to obviously entertainment, to, your food options and just all the things that make it.

The happiest place on earth. What are you doing in your office to differentiate, to make it a better experience? And that's something I think way more offices need to start paying attention to.

Dr. Michael Perusich: Yeah, because the, the traditional doctor's office experience is pretty blah. At best. At best, at best.

Sometimes it's even standoffish and you bring up Disney and you go often. I go often. Because we become loyal to it. [00:10:00] And it's that loyalty factor that creates and breeds that, that long-term lifetime patient. And I think we have to spend more time thinking about our patients as far as their lifetime value.

, And that, that goes back to another subject called retention. But, you know, if we're creating that wow factor in the practice and doctors, it's not just you, it's your, it's your staff as much as anything. It's the environment the physical plant, if you will. Everything has to create the experience for people, and when we create that experience, we create loyal patients.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah. And again, what, what do people feel, hear, smell, see when they walk into your office? I mean, is it, is it, so quiet that you could, you hear a pin drop and it's almost uncomfortable to sit in? Do we have, , is the SHEG carpet still around, back the office? Is it

Dr. Michael Perusich: still on the wall?

Dr. Alex Kallio: Which we've seen. , So just what is, what are they seeing? You know, sometimes you gotta step back and just kind of see it from a different perspective. Go into your office [00:11:00] and, and be the patient, walk in the door. What are they seeing for the first time? , We get a little store blind, right?

Stuff that we're in day in and day out., You kind of, oh yeah, that table's had a rip in it for. A few months and after you keep looking, you just kind of start ignoring it, but your patients aren't ignoring it. They're seeing it and they're wondering why that, if they're letting that go, again, their thoughts start to run wild.

So take a peek at things. Make sure your patient, it doesn't mean, what I see some clients do sometimes is they, they mistake, oh, we have to. Give better experience. It means I have to spend more time. It doesn't mean you have to spend, spend more time more, again, experience doesn't equal time, but it is a mix of a whole lot of the things we we've talked about already that provide the right experience for patients.

Dr. Michael Perusich: Exactly. So, this is a great thing to, to be talking with your staff about too. I hear a lot of doctors say, well, you know, I don't have staff meetings 'cause I don't know what to talk about. Talk about whether or not you're creating the wow factor in your practice. That's a great one. And it'll get everybody engaged because it's fun [00:12:00] too.

Um, I think that's a very important part of becoming successful. Absolutely. We need to take another quick break here. A quick word from our sponsors. We're talking about the five things that chiropractors need to do to be successful. We'll be right back.

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Dr. Michael Perusich: Okay, we are back. Thank you to our sponsors and we're talking about the five things chiropractors need to do to be successful. And we're on number four. And I think number four is you have to have systems in your practice because a practice without S Systems, I will said symptoms. The practice without systems has a lot of symptoms called chaos.

Dr. Alex Kallio: [00:13:00] And what, what systems, people, tend to think of systems really just in terms of, they get kind of narrow in where they think that, oh, that's a HIPAA form, or that's, you know, that that's some of these things and that's not really, you know, what we're, what we're talking about there.

There's a much bigger picture in terms of policies and systems that shape your office, but also shape that experience for patients too.

Dr. Michael Perusich: Yeah, they, and they do. Go hand in hand, very intertwined with the patient experience, you know, and part of systems is it is creating those repeatable efforts that, you know, things like how do you process a new patient?

Is it always the same? Is it repeatable or is it very clunky? And you look ill prepared when the patient walks in the door, , your, your staff's not ready. They don't have the paperwork together, and the patient becomes very confused by it. Not too long ago, was that a doctor's office? I don't mind saying this.

It was an orthopedic surgeon. Okay. And. They were so not [00:14:00] prepared. And this is like middle of the day. It's not like they just opened, it's middle of the day when they should, have that steam going. And they weren't prepared for me. They didn't know who I was. They didn't respond. I just stood at the front counter for a couple minutes and , and everybody's just talking to each other and, and not paying a lick of attention.

To me, that's not a good system. That's chaos. Because what I see as the patient is I see a practice that doesn't care about me.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah.

Dr. Michael Perusich: I'm just a number. I'm just another person there to disrupt their day. And that's exactly how I felt. And by the way, I'll never go back there again because of it. And so, , again, systems and the patient experience are so intertwined with each other that.

They have to happen. So whether it's scheduling or, or we're talking about collections or patient communication, patient education how we communicate treatment plans, whatever it might be, it has to run smooth and it has to have structure to it.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Well that's even down to how are we greeting patients again?

How [00:15:00] quickly should Yeah, exactly. Patients be greeted when they come in, kind of right to the, what you were talking about in your experience there at the, at the orthopedic office. What is all of that? But that should be, it should be trained, it should be roleplayed. All of those things from how are patients, first time in, how are they taking through your office?

Who, who is responsible to. Do vitals or do just everything along that pathway should be talked about. And there should be a system to it so that the next person or the next staff person comes in is gonna do it the exact same way. And you, you aren't wondering what a person or staff person or anybody within the is saying to a patient when they miss an appointment or, have a financial question at the ROF checkout or whatever comes up.

You know what they're saying and you know the message that's being given. And that's extremely important.

Dr. Michael Perusich: It's huge. So doctors break down everything that happens in your office, break down every process, every procedure, and make sure they're good and. [00:16:00] Here's a tip for you. As your practice grows, your procedures have to change.

You can't use the same procedures when you're seeing 50 patient visits a day that you used when you saw 10 patient visits a day. Your procedures have to grow with you, so it's this constant process of revisiting them and restructuring them so they continue to work for you, not against you.

Dr. Alex Kallio: And this is a point I would say where a lot of offices and a lot of docs, chiros get kind of stuck in the mud a little bit is because this seems daunting.

Right. To have to break down and look at every aspect of your practice and put a system in place. And I guess the, you know, this is where we might say that's kind of where we come in. You know, we have Yeah, exactly. Proven not only systems, but business analytics to help put in the structure that you need to help to kind of evolve with that growth.

Dr. Michael Perusich: Exactly. That's a big part of what we do for our clients at Katz Consultants. So let's jump in here to number five and we'll kind of wrap this up a little bit. Num number [00:17:00] five, I think you have to have the right mindset for growth and you have to be relentlessly driven towards that. And I see a lot of doctors who really don't spend any time on their mindset.

They walk you in five minutes before or, or five minutes after. Patients getting there. They don't give themselves any time outside of patient face-to-face, patient time to really focus on their mindset, their staff's mindset, how are we growing, how are we gonna grow? And I think that all that is so important 'cause you'll never get to the level of success that you hope for if you don't focus on the mindset.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah. Well, and I, I would kinda lump, a lot of that under professional development, right? Yeah. I just had this conversation with, with a client the other day that, it's hard to do professional development during clinic hours. It's just, it even if you're not loaded schedule at this stage, , if you're a new office or, or new practitioner, whatever the case may [00:18:00] be, getting that done during clinic hours, just it's not gonna happen, you know? Not effectively, for sure. Very little. Yeah. Yeah. So it's gotta be, you know, it needs to be scheduled time, but take advantage of some of those and look at. What is your morning routine? , What time do you get up? Are you rolling out of bed and it's, you're skating in last minute, there's patients already at the office and you're rolling in, , or are we getting up, taking some personal time, even if it's 10 or 15 minutes to listen to a podcast, to, read journals to whatever it may be work on.

And there's so many resources out there to work on that professional development. Growth mindset, you know, our, our mastermind series, you know, there's just things that you can do. Lunchtimes, walks, car rides, commute time, so many places that you know, right? It can be spent, better spent putting in some, some effort into yourself.

Dr. Michael Perusich: Fill the gaps appropriately with good mindset stuff. And we spend a lot of time doing that with our clients. You know, we have our mastermind meetings twice a month and, and those kind of things where we kind of get off the mouse wheel [00:19:00] just a little bit of, of patient care and dive into things that actually grow that mindset and help build that personal and professional development.

'cause that is so important. And it, it's important for so many reasons, success. Isn't something that just happens, it's a process of mastery. We talk about this a lot. Mastery is about always working to get better. It's not about perfectionism. It's about working to get better. It's about holding yourself accountable.

It's about it keeping connected to what you're doing and creating a focus that is always trying to improve, whether it's your adjusting skills, your business. Your business knowledge, your staff development your success strategies, whatever it might be, you're constantly working on it. You know, so we have to remember that just because we graduated from chiropractic school doesn't mean we've [00:20:00] mastered anything.

We've learned some great things, but over time you become a better doctor. You become a better adjuster, you become better. Communicating with patients, but what are you doing to get better at running your business Right. And creating success.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Well, in, in hindsight now, and, you know, you and I have been, have been in practice about the same number, you know, years.

Mm-hmm. Now and a long time. We won't, we won't say how long. I won't say long been a long time. But hindsight now, looking back, I mean the areas and the times in, in, in that practice span where I've. Maybe started to feel burnout or it had a, it, it's looking back now, I could say, 'cause I kind of floated off of doing.

More professional development time, more of that mindset time. Yep. And you know, the burnout can start to creep in. So I'd say, you know, if you're a practitioner that's kind of feeling that stress and feeling that tug of, of burnout, how much time are you spending on the mindset, on professional development?

My guess is probably not enough. It's probably not at all. Or it's laxed [00:21:00] quite a bit.

Dr. Michael Perusich: Yeah. Or yeah, if any.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Yeah.

Dr. Michael Perusich: And all of that stuff is important. So if you are struggling to reach the level of success that you'd hoped for when you got into practice, or maybe you're just starting out in practice or, or you're, you've reached a level of success and you don't know where to go now, go to cats consultants.com, go check out what we do to help.

Help patients, help doctors create more success in their practice, more profitability, and find that balance in, in their practice life and their personal life. We're very unique. We help you focus on the business strategies that create success, not just shoving more new patients into your practice that may be actually damaging you.

So vision, numbers. The patient, wow. Experience, creating great systems and having that growth mindset. Those are the five key things that you have to have to succeed. So make sure you're looking inward to find those things. And, [00:22:00] when it comes to podcasts and things like this, don't just listen.

Don't just think that's going to make you grow. You have to do what you have to take action. So make sure you're implementing things so.

Dr. Alex Kallio: Putting the work and , again, the better you are at doing these things, it's gonna make practice more fun. Yeah, absolutely. When you, when you look forward to showing up to work every day, it, it definitely, again, it makes the day go faster.

It the burnout and honestly, your patients are gonna see it. They're gonna feel you are going to grow faster when you en enjoy what you're doing.

Dr. Michael Perusich: And it, and it does, it becomes very, very fun. All right everybody, that's it for this week. So we appreciate everybody tuning into the KC Chiro Pulse podcast.

We appreciate Chiro Health USA for being one of our sponsors. Please go check them out too, because they're doing great things for doctors as well. So from all of us here at Kats Consultants, we'll see you next time.

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